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Why does it so often feel like it’s mom’s job to do all of the housework? And how many times have you asked your kids to make their bed, clean up their toys, and help out with cleaning, only to get a fight? It’s an absolute pain, and in our household, it was time to say Enough. Is. Enough. It actually isn’t hard to get kids to do their chores– without the fight. You just have to get a little bit creative.

Let them choose.

Kids like having opportunities to be in charge. While there are some chores that must fall on individual shoulders (perhaps you require each child to make their own bed or clean up their own toys, or even do their own laundry), other chores like window-washing and putting dishes in the dishwasher are fair game to the entire family. Call a family meeting and make a list of all of the chores that have to get done. Then, ask each child their favorite chore or chores to do, and their least favorites. Make a note, and for any clear-cut winners (say your daughter likes to sweep the floors, but no one else does), assign that chore to that child. For any ties (both children like to do windows), assign for them to alternate who does the task each time, or split it up the middle (one child takes these rooms, the other takes those). When kids are allowed to choose the tasks they like, they’re more likely to enjoy doing them. It may mean that mom is stuck with the least favorite tasks, but it’s better than being stuck with ALL of the tasks.

Make Cleaning Musical

One of my biggest memories as a child was when my mom would crank MeatLoaf and we’d dance around the house cleaning. We cleaned as quickly as we could, while singing along, and it felt like the housework would be done in no time. Use music to your advantage– pick a few upbeat songs your family loves, and crank them up. Send everyone to their part of the house and see who can finish the fastest (or, for a challenge, play beat the clock and see who can finish before your playlist gets to a specific song).

Use Older Children as Leaders

A great way to get both older children and younger children on board is to put a mentorship program in place within your household. Older kids know the ropes when it comes to vacuuming, loading the dishwasher, and doing the laundry. Have the older kids help instruct younger kids on these tasks. The younger kids get an opportunity to try it themselves and gain some independence and new skills, and the older kids get to act as mentors that can help a younger child learn– being a leader is a great honor, and can help motivate an older child to clean, because they’re not “cleaning,” they’re “teaching.”

 

Click the image above or click here to download the chore chart.

Use Rewards

For many families, allowance is a part of the chore cycle– you do your chores, you get money. Other families argue that chores are part of being in a family, and you do them without money. Still other families have decided on a hybrid system– some chores are done because kids are a part of the family, and that’s how families work, and other chores hold monetary value within the household. Allowance can act as a great reward and teach children the value of saving, tithing, and spending responsibly. At the same time, there are many non-monetary rewards you can use. Give your child a chore chart, like the free download I’ve included above, and fill in chores along the top. When these chores are done, then children can get a special reward. Some rewards might include a child getting to choose their favorite meal as dinner one night, or choose a bonding activity as one-on-one time with mom or dad. It may even be a special reward at the store the next time you’re there (getting to pick a special snack, for example), or something like getting to sit in a certain seat in the car, or 10 minutes extra to play before bed. There are plenty of non-monetary rewards that can get children excited about doing chores, too.

Try Something New

One way to get kids on board is to try something new. For us recently, it was a new vacuum. You see, with 2 dogs and 5 people, there was a LOT of hair around our house. My mother and I both tend to shed our hair pretty regularly, and our dogs? Eesh. Hair everywhere. So when Eureka sent me a new Eureka Brushroll Clean™ with SuctionSeal® vacuum that cleaned it’s own brushroll, I was thrilled.

But even more, everyone was fighting to try out the vacuum, including Zach, who, until now, has been scared of vacuums and insisted on leaving the room anytime one was on. There’s just something about new tech that gets people involved– our floors have never been cleaner because not only does the vacuum have incredible suction, but no one can leave this vacuum alone lately.

Because everyone loved the new vacuum, we ended up getting all kinds of things cleaned– Zach decided he likes vacuuming the floors, while Jeffrey decided he actually didn’t mind vacuuming his game room for a change.

We even cleaned dog hair off of all of the chairs and steps with the stair and upholstery brush.

But the new Eureka Brushroll Clean™ with SuctionSeal® eliminated one task that no one in the family liked to do… it kept us from having to clean the brushroll.

Check out this nastiness on our old vacuum. It meant every time we cleaned house, someone would then have to take the scissors to the vacuum to cut off all of that junk. Now, though, you just press a lever with your foot and run the Eureka Brushroll Clean™ with SuctionSeal® vacuum a few times, and the brushroll is cleaned for you. It eliminated one chore that everyone had on their “least favorite” list.

And, because no one enjoyed changing the filter (one of them literally exploded in my dad’s face once!) we all liked that this had a washable container to store all of the gunk, so there was no filter to change out. And Jeffrey loved that he didn’t have to sweep the hallways anymore– the vacuum has a special setting for bare floors, too.

There’s just something about new technology that makes life a little bit easier, and that definitely helps with getting the whole family on board with doing chores. But even more so, it’s nearly impossible to find a way to clean up after all of the hair in our house from the dogs and humans… and this vacuum helps a ton– no more scissors to the brushroll for us!

If you want to see more about our experience with the Eureka Brushroll Clean™ with SuctionSeal®, you can check out this video below:

Those are Jeffrey’s totally unfiltered, unscripted views on how much easier chores are with this awesome brushroll-cleaning vacuum from Eureka.

And, you could win one of your very own, by entering the giveaway below as part of the Eureka Cleaning Untangled sweepstakes:

Eureka #CleaningUntangled Sweeps!

If you can’t wait to get your hands on it, you can pick up your own Eureka Brushroll Clean™ with SuctionSeal® at Walmart! 

 

You’ve seen how we get more done around the house now with the Eureka Brushroll Clean™ with SuctionSeal®. But, I want to know how YOU get your kids to do chores, and I want to know if you hate cleaning the brushroll of your vacuum as much as I do! Let me know in the comments below.